Cherry Point leaders discuss furloughs, budgeting

Budget cuts are expected for the Cherry Point air station and Fleet Readiness Center East, but the extent of them is not yet known, base officials said Wednesday in New Bern.

SUE BOOK and DREW C. WILSON – Halifax Media

Budget cuts are expected for the Cherry Point air station and Fleet Readiness Center East, but the extent of them is not yet known, base officials said Wednesday in New Bern.

While acknowledging it’s unclear whether the cuts will be as severe as a possible 22 weeks of furloughs — equal to a 20 percent pay cut — for nearly the base’s 5,000 civilian workers, Cherry Point officials say they are preparing for whatever may come.

Col. Philip Zimmerman, base commander for Cherry Point, and Mary Beth Fennell, production team director for FRC East and its 3,107 employees, were speaking to the New Bern Area Chamber’s Military Alliance members Wednesday just as Defense Department officials in Washington were outlining a cost-cutting plan that would be put in place if sequestration is triggered March 1.

“The bottom line is furloughs will not actually start for DoD employees until late April,” Robert Hale, undersecretary of defense, said at a press conference. “And we certainly hope that even if sequestration is triggered … Congress will act to de-trigger sequestration, or if they can’t accomplish that goal by March 1 as the president suggested, to take some short-term action while they are dealing with the broader issue. Meanwhile, unfortunately, we will continue our planning for furloughs. Frankly this is the one of the most distasteful tasks I have faced in my four years in this job.”

“If furloughs are enacted, civilian employees will experience a 20 percent decrease in their pay between late April and September,” he said. “As a result, many families will be forced to make difficult decisions on where their financial obligations lie. Key benefits, such as life insurance benefits, health care and retirement, will generally continue.”

Cherry Point and FRC East have an annual economic impact of $2.1 billion on the area.

Zimmerman, who is in his fourth year as commander at Cherry Point, said he already knows the base will have $800,000 less baseline budget next fiscal year, but added, “I don’t know what sequestration will bring. I have received no guidance on that.”

For her part, Fennell said her team has been dividing its focus between the effects of the budget crisis and the workload of warplane and drone repairs, which artisans have to get out the door.

They have not been formally advised a furlough will be implemented, but “the Navy has been very forthcoming about the potential for furloughs — very good, almost information overload,” she said. “Employees were notified to begin planning in case that does come.”

She said the budget reality for FRC East and similar Navy repair facilities in Jacksonville, Fla., and North Island, Calif., are that “we operate like a business. We come up with a dollar quote, negotiate, contract, and then get the money upfront. Everything we have in house today has been funded and we have the money to pay for the work.”

They were advised in January to conserve resources, put a freeze on hiring and “do not contract or purchase anything unless it is mission essential,” Fennell said. “Every purchase has to go to headquarters for approval.”

“The house is full, there is lots of work and people wanting to do it,” she said, but Phase II began last week halting any unanticipated repair service inside or outside the facility. The Navy doesn’t have that money, so that work has stopped until April 1.”

Local business leaders, including Chamber Military Alliance co-chairman Bill Naumann and Chamber Director Kevin Roberts, said the furlough would be felt by businesses across Craven County and the region.

“It’s going to hurt all of us,” Roberts said. “Our elected officials are out on recess and this is going to hit home.”

Naumann said, “Those employees are going to pay their mortgages and car payments. That 20 percent is money that won’t be spent at area restaurants and retail businesses.”

At the Washington press conference, Jessica Wright, acting undersecretary of defense for personnel readiness, said, “The effects of sequestration and the Continuing Resolution on our military personnel will be devastating, but on our civilians, it will be catastrophic.

“These critical members of our workforce work in our depots that maintain and repair our tanks, our aircraft, our ships. They teach our kids. They care for our children. They provide medical treatment to all our beneficiaries. They take care of our wounded warriors.”

Hale said large bases, where we have our large depots, will be affected, but he does not expect any new contracts to be cut and payments to vendors and employees to remain on time.

U.S. Sen. Kay Hagan, D-N.C., in a Wednesday afternoon letter dealing with the prospect of the furloughs, said, “Most importantly for families in North Carolina, though, is the fact that more than 20,000 civilian employees at Camp Lejeune, New River, Cherry Point and other military bases in our state face more than $57 million in collective pay cuts.”

She said, “Military personnel are rightly protected from sequestration but these indiscriminate cuts would hit our civilian workforce hard. Beginning on March 1 — just about a week from now — the (military) services plan to begin canceling work conducted at military depots, such as Cherry Point. In fact, the Navy proposes canceling $81 million in maintenance at Cherry Point — work that is critical to our local economy and our national security.”

“While this could save money in the short-term,” Hagan said, “delaying preventive care today can actually increase maintenance costs in the future.”

Zimmerman said, “There is still military construction money in the fiscal 2013 budget for two military construction projects including one to move the current armory from the present location that would interfere with a proposed Slocum Gate ‘flyover’ from U.S. 70 and another for a Marine Aircraft Support facility, he said. “I just checked with Headquarters Marine Corps and don’t think they are going to be a problem.”

He said there was $52 million in other facilities restoration and modernization projects and for energy improvements in the current budget, with $22 million of the contracts to be awarded as soon as possible. “I think fiscal year 2013 is about the same.”

Both Zimmerman and Fennell reported on the details of a good year at the base and positive plans for the future at Cherry Point, presently clouded by the unresolved budget crisis.